Our health care system is at risk of bleeding to death. With so much attention paid to reactionary care, as opposed to preventative care, major illnesses and diseases that could have been dealt with at their earliest stages (when they would have cost the least to treat) are instead treated when complications arise, which is typically the stage when treatment is most costly. This is why it is paramount that the government take decisive action to stop, or at least reduce, the obesity problem in this country.

Having just posted on the possibility of viruses causing people to gain weight, I think it's pretty clear that my stance on this matter is certainly not Anti-Fat. In fact, I think it rather unfair to blame, ridicule and castigate people merely because they carry more weight than others. That being said, there is little disputing the fact that extremely overweight people run a much higher risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and many other chronic illnesses -- all of which are, just as unarguably, very expensive to treat. And, based on the recently Trust for America's Health annual report on the status of obesity in this country, it doesn't look like things are getting any better (serving to explain why we recieved an "F").

Since last year, obesity rates climbed in 31 states. Worse yet, not a single state witnessed a decrease in obesity rates. Thirty percent of people living in Mississippi are overweight, making it the fattest state in the country. The report also stated that most states in the South and Midwest have obesity rates over 25 percent. Furthermore, in these regions, about 30 percent of people admit to not engaging in any exercise program whatsoever, which clearly correlates with the obesity rates.

Given the fact that around $35 billion was spent by consumers last year on weight loss-related products and services, yet the aforementioned numbers persist, it's clear that the general public is dropping the ball. It's time that the government stepped to the plate on this issue before it completely cripples our health care system.

I typically eschew labels, especially when it comes to clothes and people. But in my ongoing quest for healthy living I've become an avid label reader. Ever since I caught Dr. Oz on Oprah talking about the hidden dangers in food, I've become that person. You know, the one people have to push their carts around in the narrow grocery aisle as I weigh the benefits of one spaghetti sauce over the other. And the biggest hidden culprit that just blows my mind is high fructose corn syrup. Forget fat or carbs -- we're awash in sugar.

Almost all nutritionists consider high fructose corn syrup consumption as a major player in America's obesity crisis. The inexpensive sweetener flooded the American food supply in the early 1980s, just about the time the nation's obesity rate and type 2 diabetes started their unprecedented climb.

The question is, why did it make us so fat? Is it simply the Big Gulp syndrome -- that we're eating too many empty calories in ever-increasing portion sizes? Or, does the fructose in all that corn syrup do something more insidious -- literally short-wire our metabolism and force us to gain weight? The debate can divide a group of nutritional researchers almost as fast as whether the low-carb, no-fat or Atkin's diets are fact or fad.

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